Anne-Sophie Mutter

Perfect Partnership
Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis celebrate 25th anniversary of their duo partnership this May with release of The Silver Album and major European recital tour

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis celebrate a landmark anniversary with the international release on 5 May of The Silver Album. Their artistic partnership, among the strongest in classical music, began 25 years ago with a recital tour of the United States. It has flourished ever since, thanks to a remarkable range of performance projects and critically acclaimed recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.

As well as 40 minutes of newly recorded music, The Silver Album features the world premiere recordings of Krzysztof Penderecki’s La Follia for solo violin (2013) and André Previn’s Violin Sonata No. 2 (2012), together with the "Méditation" from Massenet’s Thaďs and Ravel’s Pičce en forme de Habanera. The special two-disc set also contains substantial sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Fauré set in company with timeless encore pieces, Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid and three of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances among them.

"Meeting Lambert was a stroke of luck for me," recalls Anne-Sophie Mutter. "It quickly became clear how perfectly we breathe and phrase together. With Lambert I can do anything." They gave their first concerts in the United States in December 1988 and have performed and toured together every year since. Their mutual empathy and personal affinity can be heard throughout The Silver Album, reflecting what the Seattle Times describes as "a level of artistic partnership that is rare, even in the highest echelons of concert performance".

Lambert Orkis explains how he and Mutter are able to communicate so effortlessly through music. "We like one another, we like each other’s playing and we like each other’s company," he observes. "Her playing is incredibly beautiful."

Their shared vision of pieces evolves naturally during rehearsal and in performance, without discussion of esoteric details of interpretation. "Of course, we talk to each other," notes Orkis, "but we say very little about interpretation – and we never argue."

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis will perform works from The Silver Album in May as part of an 11-concert 25th-anniversary tour of Germany, France and Switzerland. Their typically adventurous programme comprises Penderecki’s La Follia, Previn’s Violin Sonata No. 2, Mozart’s Sonata for violin and piano in E minor, K. 304 and Beethoven’s monumental Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, "Kreutzer".